PARTNER SUCCESS STORY
HITCHCOCK AUTOMOTIVE DRIVES TO
SUCCESS WITH CISCO CHANNEL PARTNER
PRAXIS COMPUTING
Vertical Market/Technology
Retail Auto Sales/Security, Wireless
Partner Business Focus
Praxis Computing is a Cisco Premier
Partner that has built a strong business
by developing a vertical focus on the
networking needs of small and medium-
sized businesses in the automotive,
entertainment, legal, and real estate
fields in around and Los Angeles. In its
11 years of technology consulting, Praxis
has gained a reputation for consistent
technical excellence and has earned
specializations from Cisco in both
VPN/Security and Wireless technology.
Customer
Hitchcock Automotive operates five
automobile dealerships throughout
Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Each
of its dealerships used to run on a local
mid-range server, but the company wanted
to centralize the computer system at the
corporate office using high performance
PC servers. This would reduce admin-
istrative work and staff at each location,
allow easier generation of consolidated
management reports, and provide a faster,
and more stable and reliable network for
each of the dealerships.
Business Challenge
Each dealership must maintain connectivity
to the automotive manufacturer’s corpo-
rate facility through a unique variety of
equipment and software. Network require-
ments for each element of the system had
to be established through IT contacts at
each manufacturer. Additionally, automo-
bile dealerships are highly automated, so
the network had to be exceedingly reliable.
Any outage results in stalling of sales and
customer service and hundreds of
employees standing idle. Hitchcock
Automotive also wanted to provide
wireless Internet service to its customers
waiting in the service area lounges.
Technology Solution/ROI
Praxis Computing designed and deployed
a WAN connecting multiple automobile
dealerships using T1, ISDN and VPN
technologies. The also installed wireless
Internet Cafes using Cisco Aironet-based
wireless Internet service for use by
customers waiting in the service area
lounges. The new network saves each
dealership manager 10 hours per week
in network administration and monthly
maintenance tasks are handled centrally.
Hitchcock Automotive has done away
with duplicate personnel and equipment
at each dealership.
Hitchcock Automotive operates five automobile dealerships throughout
Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Its franchises include BMW, Toyota, Ford,
Volkswagen, and Hyundai.
Hitchcock Automotive enlisted Cisco® Premier Partner Praxis
Computing to design and
deploy a wide area network (WAN) between its dealerships, as well as set up a wireless
Internet service for each of the customer waiting areas. The WAN implementation pro-
vides a fast, reliable, and centralized computer system for the dealerships, improving
communications and efficiency, and customers waiting for service on their cars can now
access the Internet or their emails via a wireless Internet Café.
THE ‘AUTOMATIC’ BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS
Sales, service, and parts operations at modern automotive dealerships are automated
to the point that the dealership cannot function manually. Hitchcock relied on a local
mid-range server for operations at each of its dealerships, but they investigated centraliz-
ing the computer system at the corporate office using high-performance PC servers.
This centralization would significantly reduce the administrative work required at each
location, reduce administrative staff, and enable consolidated management reports to be
generated more easily.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
